Ohio State moved past Florida and Cal into the #5 spot in this week's Downtown Magazine College Football Top 25 rankings.
The Buckeyes were impressive on both sides of the ball in their 31-6 rout over Iowa, holding the Hawkeyes to 22 yards rushing for the entire game. Including their 5 sacks of Iowa quarterback Drew Tate, the Buckeye defense actually limited Iowa's ground attack to a negative 13 yards.
Tate, the Big Ten's preseason player of the year, wasn't very successful through the air against the pressuring Ohio State defense either, amassing only 152 yards, as he connected on 22 of 39 passes and was intercepted once.
Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith demonstrated his considerable talents in the game, rushing for 129 yards and 2 scores on 18 carries and throwing for 189 yards and two more scores on 13 of 19 passing.
Antonio Pittman rushed for a season-high 167 yards on 28 carries while A. J. Hawk led the defense with 11 tackles and 1 1/2 sacks.
The score actually could have been more lopsided, as the Buckeyes twice fumbled inside the Iowa 10-yard line.
The Buckeyes only loss this season was a three-point loss to #2 Texas on September 10, but look poised to run the table in the Big 10. Their biggest remaining games are at home against Michigan State on October 15, at Wisconsin (Oct. 29) and the season-ending tilt at Michigan on November 19.
Holding their spots in the top four positions were USC, Texas, Virginia Tech and Georgia. The Trojans overcame a 13-0 deficit at Oregon to notch their 3rd straight win and first in PAC 10 play. After the Ducks took the early lead, USC shut them out the rest of the way and scored on their next 7 possessions, running away with the 45-13 win.
Virginia Tech completely outclassed Georgia Tech, 51-7, while the Georgia Bulldogs continued their winning ways with a 23-10 win at Mississippi State. Both the Hokies and Bulldogs improved to 4-0, while idle Texas remained at 3-0.
Further down the rankings, Louisville (#9 last week) was shocked by Big East foe South Florida, 45-14. Louisville dropped completely out of the Top 25 while the Bulls squeezed into the #24 spot.
With Purdue, Michigan and Clemson all losing and dropping out of the Top 25, the teams which beat them took some of the lower positions in the rankings. Boston College, Wisconsin and Minnesota make their initial appearances at numbers 17, 20 and 22, respectively.
While Purdue lost in overtime to Minnesota for only their first loss of the season, their lack of focus on defense will be troublesome for them the rest of the way. Michigan and Clemson both now have the blots of two early-season losses on their records and could not overcome the plethora of surprisingly good teams in the Top 25.
LSU and Tennessee, ranked #8 and #16, play tonight in Baton Rouge as their game, originally scheduled for Saturday, was pushed back to Monday due to hurricane Rita drenching the Louisiana and Texas coasts over the weekend.
The Tigers have played only one game thus far, a dramatic Sept. 10, 35-31 win over Arizona State. That game that was initially to be played in Baton Rouge, but had to be moved to drier Tempe, Arizona, due to Hurricane Katrina. A week earlier, LSU's original home opener against North Texas was postponed by the storm.
Tennessee has played twice, including a loss to Florida last week. The outcome of this game will almost certainly have an impact on next week's Top 25.
